CVE-2021-21401 - CVE House
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Status published High CVE-2021-21401

Invalid free() call in Nanopb

Vulnerability Description

Nanopb is a small code-size Protocol Buffers implementation in ansi C. In Nanopb before versions 0.3.9.8 and 0.4.5, decoding a specifically formed message can cause invalid `free()` or `realloc()` calls if the message type contains an `oneof` field, and the `oneof` directly contains both a pointer field and a non-pointer field. If the message data first contains the non-pointer field and then the pointer field, the data of the non-pointer field is incorrectly treated as if it was a pointer value. Such message data rarely occurs in normal messages, but it is a concern when untrusted data is parsed. This has been fixed in versions 0.3.9.8 and 0.4.5. See referenced GitHub Security Advisory for more information including workarounds.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

No credits recorded in the NVD database.

Affected Vendor

Affected Software

nanopb
Vulnerable Versions:
>= 0.3.2, <= 0.3.9.7, >= 0.4.0, <= 0.4.4

Timeline

Official Publish: March 23rd, 2021
Last Modified: August 3rd, 2024
Added to House: July 21st, 2026

CVSS Vectors

V3: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L

Weaknesses (CWE)

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

No associated TTPs found for this vulnerability.